$SPY That trade from 750 to 762.50 is probably the best example of how I like to trade.
I bought the 750 support yesterday after the FOMC selloff and sold today above 762.50. The contracts closed at +123%.
Great trade. But the result isn’t really the point of this post. The waiting is.
I know plenty of great traders who trade every day. They buy local support, sell local resistance, short local resistance, cover at the next support and consistently take $2–$4 moves.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Some of them are extremely good at it and make a lot of money doing it. It’s just not my style.
I don’t care about catching every move in between.
I’d rather sit on my hands for days waiting for SPY to reach a major level where I think the risk/reward becomes heavily asymmetric.
If I’m going long, ideally I want to buy major support with my invalidation right underneath me.
If I’m shorting, I want major resistance with my invalidation right above me.
That way, if I’m wrong, I find out quickly and cheaply.
If I’m right, I have room for the trade to become something much bigger.
Over roughly the last 3 weeks, I’ve only taken three trades.
One was a significantly large long position for me from around 759 toward 767. That trade added roughly 10% to my account.
Then I waited.
The next setup failed. I took the stop and lost roughly 1.1% of the account and i was mentally prepared to lose up to 3-4%.
No drama. That’s trading.
The winner was much larger than the loser because I entered close to my invalidation.
Then I waited again.
Yesterday, FOMC finally pushed SPY into the 750 major support I had been waiting for.
While many were scared after the selloff, that was exactly where I wanted to take risk.
Long at 750.
Risk defined right underneath support.
Today SPY traded above 762.50 and I sold the position for +123% on the contracts.
And these weren’t 0DTEs where a tiny $0.50 premium can double on a relatively small move. These were swing contracts that I bought for $2.80 and sold around $6.00.
That’s the type of trading I enjoy. I don’t want more trades. I want better trades.
Three trades in almost three weeks is perfectly fine with me, and I’m fine with even less if the market doesn’t give me a decent setup.
I’m going to be wrong sometimes. Everyone is. The objective isn’t to eliminate losing trades.
It’s to structure them so that when I’m wrong, I lose small, and when the setup works, I give myself the opportunity to win big.
Major support.
Major resistance.
Clear invalidation.
Patience.
I’ll happily watch ten smaller moves happen without me while I wait for the one setup where I can put meaningful size on with the stop sitting right behind me.
I don’t get paid for how often I trade.
I get paid for how well I trade when the opportunity finally comes.
Discipline is the key to success.
If you cannot force yourself to do something you don’t want to do,
how are you ever gonna put yourself through the suffering required for greatness?
Every day, you have a choice.
You can continue down the plain old road you’re on.
Or you can be heroic and go down an epic one.
Every day that you make the wrong choice, more of your potential is wasted.
Will you make the right choice today?
It's an opportunity.
It has been over 5,000 years since I last spent 96 hours straight practicing the Ki-zami-zuki technique.
Many of you reading this right now may be suffering hardship.
Life as a man will always be full of it.